Catching nucleosomes in action

Catching Evolution in Action

To study evolution, biologists have traditionally investigated what has happened in the past, sometimes many millions of years ago. To learn about dinosaurs, a paleontologist looks at dinosaur fossils. To study human evolution, an anthropologist looks at human fossils and, increasingly, examines the “family tree” of mutations that have accumulated in human DNA over millions of years. For the bi...

Catching evolution in action

A hundred years ago Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection was taught as the foundation of biology in public schools throughout the United States. Then something happened. In the 1920s, conservative religious groups began to argue against the teaching of evolution in our nation's schools. Darwinism, they said, contradicted the revealed word of God in the Bible and thus was a ...

Catching synaptic vesicles in action

The synaptic vesicle (SV) cycle was initially discovered at the neuromuscular junction using electron microscopy (EM) analysis.(1) With the introduction of fluorescent probes that are able to monitor real-time cellular events in live cells, EM analysis was pushed to the side lines because it could not provide meaningful kinetic analyses of the various steps in the synaptic vesicle cycle.

Catching the sources of organic LED degradation in action

Though great improvements have been made in recent years, organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) still have limited lifetimes. In general, the degradation of OLEDs manifests itself as a decrease in device luminance with time. Three distinct modes of deterioration have been recognized: dark spot generation, catastrophic failure, and intrinsic degradation.1 In the first mode, nonemissive regions a...

Catching Kangaroos in Function Fields Catching Kangaroos in Function Fields